For hospitals, backup power and a lot of dedicated people

ER visits higher than normal

Nov. 1, 2012

Written by

Kristi Funderburk

@kfunder

In the wake of superstorm Sandy, some area hospitals are finding their emergency rooms three times busier than this time last year.

Power outages have kept people from visiting their doctors or picking up their medications, so they’re coming to the emergency rooms with anyone who is getting injured from using chainsaws or generators and those who need care for regular emergencies, said Robert Cavanaugh, spokesman for the Meridian Health system.

The five hospitals within the health system are having trouble getting in touch with staff about opening additional units to treat the extra patients because of cellphone issues and others are running out of gas and unable to fill up because of busy or closed stations, he said.

“There’s obstacles on both sides,” Cavanaugh said.

The staff has made the difference at Meridian and other area hospitals during the storm and in the days after.

“It was a challenging time for everybody involved in the storm, but from our perspective, the staff was great,” said Mike Slusarc, vice president of community affairs for Barnabas Health. “They were there. They stayed when they were needed. They persevered and it just shows their dedication is to the patients.”

Slusarc said the hospitals have disaster plans in place to prepare for situations like Sandy. They had to rely on that plan last year for Hurricane Irene, too.

The emergency room volume within Barnabas facilities also is heavy, Slusarc said. Staff is handling the volume day by day, he said.

Barnabas Health has six facilities, including Community Medical Center in Toms River, Kimball Medical Center in Lakewood and Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch.

Abbey Luterick, director of public relations for CentraState, said they are “operating business as usual,” except that the hospital was only doing emergency surgeries Tuesday.

(Page 2 of 2)

“The emergency department was busy, but we were prepared, which has helped us in this crisis,” she said.

Many hospitals lost power during the storm and some have yet to get it back. The medical centers have been running with generators, which have helped the staff continue to provide care.

Having backup power helped a Meridian hospital in Holmdel help more than its patients.

After a shelter in Hazlet started taking on water, Bayshore Community Medical Center welcomed families to use its spare patient beds and sleeping areas to wait out the storm system, Cavanaugh said. The hospital staff also took care of six area firefighters who had come in with hypothermia after rescuing people from the waters.

“It makes you proud to work in a hospital,” said Tom Paolella, Bayshore spokesman, said as he recalled the staffs from housekeeping to management that stayed to help all the patients and overnight guests.

Only Jersey Shore and Riverview within Meridian’s system are back to full power. Some but not all Barnabas hospitals have power again.

Neither system is fully back to regular scheduling, including only doing emergency surgeries in some locations, but hope to get back to normal operations soon, according to hospital officials.